Book reviews.

Well, I want the whole pie too, and because of that I often find myself with Christians from different parts of the world. I have had some God-filled moments in my experience with the diversity of Christianity, where the Spirit enables us to celebrate our differences. But I have also had moments of hopelessness, when rifts in the global church seem to block the way forward. Johnson and Wu’s insistence on unity within Christianity can seem naïve. But it can also sound like the Holy Spirit calling the church to imagine what is possible only with God.


962*
London, 1822. The character of this most excellent work, like that of its accomplished author, is so well known, and so firmly established, that we merely notice it, to afford an opportunity, to those wha are anxious to see the progress which pharmacology is every year making, of procuring the third edition, wherein much that is new will be found, both in the text and the notes, ably developed. Mr. Thomson's very extensive reading has enabled hirn , to collcct a body of information, in the present edition,equalled in none other of the contemporary publications of a similar nature.
To render this Dispensatory still more useful to the generality of p ractitioners, the author has added, in the Appendix, four well-written, concise, and historical papers, on as many subjects of great practical importance, now engaging much of the public attention. We allude to the hydrocyanic acid,?iodine,? oil of croton,?and the wine of colchicum.
The introduction of the first and the last of these medicinal preparations is now so firmly established, that a notice of each from the author of the London Dispensatory became indispensable. The other two articles are yet subject matter of speculation, on which the opinion of medical men is much divided. We were glad to find a notice of them in this work.
Among the very many additions and illustrations contained in the present edition, we may also mention that Mr. Thomson bas inserted, from the popular work of Dr. Paris, all the information regarding the composition of those quack, or, as they are termed, patent medicines, which he has considered useful; 14 for," observes Mr. Thomson, " as the author of the Pharmacologia has done me the honour to extract very largely from the Dispensatory, I have, in return, not hesitated to'borrow a little of the curious and novel matter which his notes contain." This is all fair. Books are public, and consequently common property. That authors should borrow the ideas, doctrines, conclusions, and facts, of their predecessors or contemporaries, is a circumstance at which we ought to rejoice at all times; but, in fairness to the original, as well as in justice to their own characters, copyists should acknowledge the source from whence they have borrowed their information. Since we introduced one of the articles, mentioned by Mr. Thomson in his Appendix, into the medical practice of this country, and more especially since the publication of our historical treatise on that medicine, the information contained in that book, and by us communicated for the first time to the public, has been pirated in every direction, without the least acknowledgment, or the mention of our name. How different the practice of an honest and candid author like the one before us; an author who can boldly stand on his own great merits, and disdain borrowed plumes ! Mr. Brande's name is there quoted,?not as the disco-5 verer of new facts, the inventor of useful apparatus, or the expounder of obscure doctrines, as we had hoped to see, and had a right to expect from him ; but as the combatted and the discomfited censor of long-established and valuable institutions, or of authors equally eminent for their private worth and their skill in science. The professor first directed his attack against the Royal College of Physicians in London; and, in Dr.
Thomas Young, (del! quel contraste de noms!) one of that learned body, he found a tremendous antagonist. He next pointed his shafts of criticism against the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Glasgow, with the systems of which he proved himself wholly ignorant; and we need not mention how triumphantly he was defeated, on those occasions, by the able replies of the professors of those institutions. Not satisfied with this, he drags forth to unmerited derision two of the first characters of the age, whose names are become as classical as their labours, Berzelius and Gay Lussac; but the attempt was so 1 puny, that the laughers were all, on that occasion, against him. Two such men needed no defence against the editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science! He then fell headlong upon the author of the best system of chemistry extant; and, by inserting in his Journal a most virulent attack against him, botK as a man and an author, calls forth the animadversions of the good, and the tardy, but damning, reply of the author himself, which we now announce.
Our readers know that the editor of the Quarterly Journal had, before this last exploit, made a most unjust, unprovokedj and shameful attack against us, poor humble individuals, compared to the men we have just mentioned,?against us, then in habits of intimacy with him,?against us, his coadjutors in compiling the Journal of Science,?against us, who were in the habit of supplying him, exclusively, with all foreign information, and the analysis of foreign works and Journals. Whether that attack was successfully repelled,?its misrepresentations exposed,?its fallacies detected,?the ignorance it betrayed pointed out,?and its real motives ascertained, we leave to the numerous readers who perused the " Reply" to decide.
Just such a glorious termination has the present contest bad, between Dr. Thomson and Mr.
Brande. The answer we now announce (and which, besides being printed in the Annals of Philosophy for April, has been widely circulated in a separate form,) does so expose the wickedness of the attack contained in the 21st Number of the Journal of the Institution against Dr. Thomson, that we should hope never to see the pages of that Journal sullied again with such performances. Let the members of the Royal Institution look to this. Are they to continue to lend their name to a Journal which has so often become Traite ties iHterses Amputations. 513 the vehicle of abuse and slander against persons whose aim and care is, conscientiously, to promote the advancement of science! System of Chemistry. When I perused it, for the first time, with attention, in the month of February last, the impression which jt left tipon my mind was, that many of the animadversions must be well founded. They are made with an air of such confidence and plausibility, that they are well calculated to make an impression on the reader. After having thus investigated them one by one, I am amazed to find how very few of them have any justice in them ; and feel fully confident that every reader will participate in my astonishment, and agree with me that a more uncandid review has scarcely ever appeared, and that it fixes an indelible stigma both on the editor and the author." This is an excellent idea, and another of the useful applications of the lithographic art, for which we are indebted to our ingenious neighbours.
Each different amputation is faithfully represented by drawings, on stone, taken from nature; the different steps of the operation, and the manner of performing it, being pourtrayed in the most accurate and satisfactory manner. We commend, above all, the great exactness of the designs, and the precision of the chirurgical descriptions that accompany them. Baron no. 280. IPercy, who must be allowed to be an excellent judge in these, matters, has made a highly favourable report of the work to the Royal Institute.
To those young surgeons and country practitioners, whose occupations afford few opportunities of seeing the principal operations of surgery performed, this work will prove of the utmost utility; and, as a guide, the best they can possess. This is the title of a projected work by a gentleman who has distinguished himself in the pursuit of natural science. It is intended as a sort of medical Zoology, in which not only the natural history of those animals that are interesting to the health of man is fully given ; but also every particular connected with them is detailed, which is referrible either to the composition of medicines, or to the preparation of food for the human species. We prefer letting the author speak for himself as to the nature of his undertaking. ceptes sur la maniere de s'en emparcr et de conserve? celles de lears parties qui sunt utiles k l'artde guerir; sur les preparations qu'on doit leur faire subir; sur les doses auxquelles on les administre ; sur Taction physiologique qu'elles exercent dans notre organisme; sur leurs pro. prietes medicinales, reelles ou supposees ; sur les falsifications qu'on peut leur faire &prouver, et sur la maniere de reconnaitre enfin celles-ci. <s D'un autre c6te, le medecin n'agit point seulement a I'aide des medicamens; le regime devient une arme puissante entre ses mains. II ne troure done pas moins d'inter&t dans l'etude de tous les animaux qui contribuent a ['alimentation de ses semblables, et en particulier dans l'examen attentif de cette vingtaine d'esp&ces si importantes dans l'economie generate de la Nature, et que nous avons su reduire k l'etat de domestiqite pour profiter de la chair, du sang, du lait, des ceufs, du beurre, &c. qu'elles fournissent journellement k nos besoins. On concoit sans peine & combien de considerations utiles une semblable matiere peut donner naissance. Ce n'est point tout encore. II ne suflit point de connaitre la sangsue, les cantharides, la civette, le muse, les meloes, les mylabres, consacres au soulagement de nos maux; ou le mouton, la poule, la vache, le pore, destines k assouvir notre faim et k reparer les pertes do notre organisation : il existe des animaux possesseurs d'un poison actif, qui repandent autour d'eux la douleur et la stupeur, et qui quelquefois m6me, apres avoir cess6 de vivre, peuvent faire encore germer dans notre sein le funeste principe d'une mort assume. Le medecia doit les connaitre; il est souvent appele pour combattre l'esp&ce d'empoisonnement auquel ils donnent lieu; rien de ce qui les concerne ne saurait lui etre etranger; le tableau des sympt6mes qu'ils determinent n'est pas moins important pour lui, que la science des rem&des propres a faire cesser les accidens effrayans qu'il a 4 vaincre lui est indispensable." The work will be completed in thirty numbers, each composed of six sheets of letter-press and two plates, coloured, price three francs. The first number will appear on the 1st of July. From the author's researches, it would appear that sporadic typhus is neither constituted by an inflammatory state of the brain, nor of the nervous system. It has seldom happened to him to witness any sign of inflammation, after death, in either of those parts of the animal economy. The pectoral as well as the abdominal viscera, on the contrary, have invariably exhibited the morbid alterations caused by inflammation ; so that the morbid process by which sporadic typhus is constituted appears to extend to many organs and systems at the same time.
The'author adduces the doctrine of inflammationes occulta, invented by the ancients, as one which approximates, nearer than any other, to any thing like a satisfactory explanation of the proximate causes of typhus. A state of irritation, simulating inflammation, may subsist in this disease; or a degree of erethismus of the brain may prevail through the sympathetic influence of distant organs; in both which cases, blood-letting may prove injurious.
The author, therefore, recommends the cautious use of this therapeutical means, and prefers the employment of bland purgatives, mucilaginous drinks, local depletion, and mercurial frictions over the surface of the abdomen ; due regard being had to the strength of the patient, and the approach of a crisis ia the disease. lepra, a disease of such rare occurrence amongst us, prevails to a great degree in Portugal. The author, who is a member of the Board of Public Health, has discharged the duty of a good citizen, in calling the attention of the legislature to this point. Amatus Lusitanus, Rodrigpes a Fonseca, Zacutus, and other Portuguese physicians, had already seen this loathsome disorder in Portugal; but it was then much less frequent than now. The provinces of Minha, Beira, and others, are infected with it. In the capitanshire of Minos Geraes, at the Brazil, it also prevails. In the hospital of St. Lazarus, in Lisbon, there are, at this moment, from twenty-five to thirty cases of elephantiasis in men, and from eight to ten in women. M. Gomez reckons that there are, at least, eight hundred leprosi in different parts of the kingdom.
As to the means proposed by the author for extirpating this disease, by the establishment of specific hospitals or lazarets, (gafarias,) they are by far of too local a nature for us to notice them in this place.
A theiform infusion of the arum colocasia, previously roasted and powdered, has been strongly recommended in this complaint ; but the result has not been so satisfactory as that obtained from the use of arsenic, agreeably to the practice followed in India. The use of colchicum and prussic acid have also been proposed, and had recourse to; but hitherto, as it would appear. with little success, There is a singular circumstance connected with this work which leads us principally to notice it. The author admits that the nature of the disease on which he has undertaken to write is perfectly well known and correctly understood. He himself admits that it is purely and distinctly inflammatory ; but he, at the same time, insists that neither blood-letting nor the application of leeches, now so prodigally resorted to in the treatment of that complaint, are proper, salutary, and justifiable means. But for the application of his doctrine to the complaint under consideration, in which M. Vanderzade is decidedly wrong, we would willingly admit the correctness of his general remark against the present mania of seeing nothing but inflammation in every case of disease.
" En reconnaissant," says M. Vanderzade, " que la maladie dont nous nous occupons, est une inflammation de peritoine, nous ecartons du traitement et la saignee et les sangsues que l'on voit prodiguer maintenant, avec l'eau gomme et l'eau sacree ?k la moindre douleur du ventre, de la poitrine, ou de la tete, comme si le genie inflammatoire presidoit a toutes les maladies, et qu'il n'y eut pour le combattre dans tous les cas, qu'a degorger les vaisseaus sauguins toujours coupables de plenitude et charges de Vanathtme qui les'livre a des myriades de sangsues dont la population, si cela dure, est menacee de s'eteindre.,> The author having discarded bleeding and leeches from the treatment of puerperal peritonitis, found himself obliged to look out for some more effective remedial agent with which to combat that disorder. This he has found in calomel, from the use of which he pretends to have obtained more benefit than from any other measure adopted in such cases by the generality of practitioners.
We scarcely need dilate on this subject with English readers, who must long have been familiar with the practice now brought forward as a discovery; but we cannot suffer him to quit us without giving him a piece of useful information?that if he goes on relying on calomel alone in puerperal inflammation of the peritoneum, his future success will greatly disappoint his expectations.
[ 418 ] Of the real nature of inflammation we have as yet no precise notion.
In the treatment of it we have lately made very great improvement; the continental practitioners still more than any other, particularly those of Italy and next those of France ; for after bleeding they do not prescribe the compound aloetic, or gamboge pills, or the cathartic extract, with a prodigious black dose, containing tinctures, aromatics, compound infusions, and Heaven knows what other fiery drug. This question, as far as it regards inflammatory complaints, being brought to an issue, the public may rejoice at the result \ for it we are now successful in combating inflammation, it imports not a straw, whether we know, or know not, what is the morbid process in nature, by which inflammation is produced.
We see, therefore, with regret, an attempt made by the present author (in every other respect a most worthy practitioner) to throw us back half a century in regard to the methodus medendi in sthenic maladies. He is horror-struck at the profusion of blood, at the enormous quantities of tartar emetic, antimonials, calomel, digitalis, prussic acid, squill, ipecacuanha, with a few more articles of the contra-stimulant system so liberally prescribed. To check such a practice, he comes forward with all his experience and erudition ; and endeavours, by reasoning as well as by the exposition of facts, to point out the mischief likely to arise from the prevalence of the present doctrine of universal inflammation.
Dr. Filippi first describes what he considers inflammation to be; and next watches the progress of this morbid action through its various effects on the animal system. The first of these he calls " Lesione idraulica del circoloi" next to it comes suppuration?serous and purulent effusion ; enlargement, induration, atrophy, softening, disorganization, gangrene.
This analytical history of inflammation is very ably drawn up, and seems founded on principles of the soundest pathology.
Vitality is a principle which both affects and is affected by inflammation. It was natural, therefore, for Dr. Filippi ta, enter into the consideration of this entity. This question is fully debated in the third chapter ; and we were pleased with the manner in which the author has conveyed to his readers hi& own conception of the organization of the human body. "L'organizzazione del corpo uniano io la ripcto da tre elemcntari tessuti: ii tessuto nerveo, iltessuto vascolareed il tcssuto membranoso. U primo fabbrica e dispensa la vitality: il secondo provvcde i materiali per essa vitalita c pella organizzazione; il terzo lega, raccoglie e modellaidue primi tessuti e costituisce la compage organica dell* essere intiero. I sistemi osseo e muscolare non sono propriamente organici ed elementari, poichk derivano dai tre primi e sembrano unicamente destinati ad estenderela sfera della vita animale. Osservasi che nella fabbrica delle parti e degli organi, que' tre primi elementari tessuti si intrecciano e si confondono si fattamente tra loro, che ove si trovino vasi, v' abbia e nervi e tessuto raembranoso o cellulare, cosl viceversa.
There are some excellent remarks in a subsequent part of the work on the necessity of taking into consideration the structure as well as the importance of the different tissues or organs affected by inflammation; and these are followed by the author's classifications of inflammatory modifications. The annexed extract will convey a clear idea of his particular views on this subject.
The presence or the effect of inflammation is deduced from the presence of certain characters, which Dr. Filippi says may be collected from the state of the pulse, the existence of pain, the appearance of the blood; the ability of tolerating the action of remedies, from autopsical inspection. The treatment of inflammation calls for two orders of remedial agents, l External, which the author subdivides into, a, cold